SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL |
| Why Being a Murderer During the Time of Downton Abbey Sucked. Posted: 10 Mar 2021 10:00 PM PST
 Downton Abbey may have only aired for six series, but the time period it covered, 1912 to 1926, was a bleak one for the average Edwardian murderer. And you could forgive him, or her, for feeling aggrieved. At the beginning of the century all your run-of-the-mill killer had to contend with while fleeing the scene of a crime was a bobby on foot, or if he was very unlucky, a horse. In 1909 the police started using bicycles, still not too much of a threat to a fit young killer. But by 1920, the police had caught up (literally) and purchased motor cars, although in many rural locations bikes and shank's pony were still the norm. Another blow to your harassed Edwardian murderer was the formation in 1901 of the fingerprint branch of the Metropolitan Police. In 1902, Harry Jackson, a 41 year-old Londoner, became the first man to be convicted by the new branch. His thumbprint was identified on a freshly-painted windowsill at the scene of a burglary in South London. The items stolen? A number of billiard balls! It wasn't until 1905 the fingerprint branch had their real moment of glory. Two brothers, Alfred and Albert Stratton were convicted on the evidence of fingerprints of the vicious murder of Thomas Farrow after a break-in in Deptford in 1905. From thereon in, things rapidly went from bad to worse for the harassed Edwardian murderer just trying to make an honest killing. The police, not content with using fingerprints, now started employing radios. The first victim to fall foul of this new fangled trickery was famously Dr Crippen. Obviously infuriated by the police's refusal to play fair anymore, he fled the country in 1910. However, the ship's captain recognised him and sent a radio message back to London. When Dr Crippen arrived in Canada, rather than a land of opportunity for a seasoned serial killer like himself, he found a couple of detectives waiting for him. At this stage any would-be murderer could plainly see the police weren't going to play fair anymore. The days of gentlemanly conduct between the forces of law and order were over. The gloves were off. Proving themselves equal to the challenge, two members of a Latvian gang fought back by arming themselves and shooting three policemen during a robbery in Houndsditch. The murderers were surrounded and the 'Siege of Sidney Street' as it became known started. After the police were outgunned, Winston Churchill himself came down and gave the order for the army to be called in. Six hours after the siege started, the building the two men were holed up in was ablaze and they were both dead. The following year the Metropolitan police purchased a thousand self-loading Webley & Scott pistols. But it wasn't just firepower your average Edwardian murderer had to fear in this period. 'Womanpower' was taking off and in 1918 Brighton appointed its first female police officers. The Metropolitan force countered the following year by employing their own female officers, although the chief commissioner of the time, Sir Nevil Macready, insisted they didn't employ any 'vinegary spinsters' or 'blighted middle-aged fanatics'. And the bad news continued throughout these years with the introduction of radios in cars, telephones in police boxes and the formation of the Flying Squad, although I'm not sure it was quite on the lines of The Sweeney at the time. However, there was one bright light in all this darkness for our embattled murderer. The police went on strike. In 1918 they simply decided they didn't want to catch murderers, or any other kind of nefarious individuals, unless they were paid a damn sight more for doing so. Was this really their aim, or had they an ulterior motive? You see, their bosses decided to decline any thought of extra cash and the strike continued in 1919. Perhaps the real explanation for the one and only strike in police history was actually a response to the increasing influence of the media? Newspaper and radio coverage of murder trials became more and more prevalent, big cases attracting the same kind of frenzy as a cup final. So perhaps the police decided if they didn't give their prey a break, he, or she, would soon be extinct. And their five minutes of fame in the media spotlight would be gone for good. Just like the once, proud Edwardian murderer. R.I.P.  Mystery by The Sea by Verity Bright (Published by Bookoutre) Out Now Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn't had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. Being an amateur detective can be a rather tiring business and she is determined to escape any more murder and mysteries. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips and, of course, a dip in the ocean. Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: a guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can't afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible. Thank goodness she has her partner in crime – Gladstone the bulldog – to help her sniff out the dastardly culprit. But when Eleanor enters the dead man's room, she receives a shock big enough to make her forget even the finest ice cream sundae. The body is that of her husband, who supposedly died six years ago on the other side of the world. Has he been alive all these years? Why does he have a copy of their wedding photograph with a cryptic message written on the back? If Eleanor can keep herself safe long enough to find her husband's killer, she might discover that everything is not quite as it seems beside the seaside… Author Bio Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s. Follow them @BrightVerity  |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2021 01:13 PM PST
 Ayo:- Your debut novel The Santorium has already hit all the best sellers list and is a Reese Witherspoon bookclub pick as well. What was the inspiration for the story? Sarah:- While living in Switzerland, in both Geneva and Crans Montana, I became immediately drawn to the mountains – strikingly beautiful, but also raw and wild. It's a stunning place in both summer and winter, but for me, the winter is when it's at its most dramatic. When the snow starts falling, totally transforming the landscape, you get a real sense of nature's power and the inherent dangers, and I started thinking that this backdrop would be perfect for fiction. The idea of setting the novel in a converted sanatorium came about after reading an article in a local magazine about the legacy of tuberculosis sanatoriums in Crans Montana. Sanatoriums were the main driver of people coming in numbers to the town, but when antibiotics became available in the mid-twentieth century, many were converted into hotels, which was the start of the town's winter tourism industry. This sparked my imagination, and I started thinking about the darker side of this – how would it feel to stay somewhere that had once been a hospital, a place where many people lived and died? As I researched, I began to think an old sanatorium would be the perfect creepy, gothic setting for a novel. I'm fascinated by repurposed buildings in general and I loved the idea of making the building itself a character within the novel, exploring the idea that the history, the energy and malevolent forces of the past might still be lingering, despite its conversion. I was also inspired by the architecture of sanatoriums, in particular, how they were often designed according to the principles of 'functionalism' - the design and decor optimized to stop the spread of infection and help tuberculosis patients recover (the building itself as a medical instrument.) The design of these buildings was so influential, that early 20th Century Modernist architects picked up many key elements of the minimalist design of sanatoria - large windows, balconies to maximise sunlight exposure, clean, smooth surfaces without clutter, floors and walls clear so there were less places for germs to hide. I began thinking about how this minimalist, clinical design might be used in the hotel and how it would be viewed by a guest – a great way to heighten tension in the novel, especially if some reminders of the building's clinical past were included within the design. I was also inspired by the fact these sanatoriums were often based in remote, high altitude locations not only for health reasons of being at altitude but in order to stop the spread of infection. I wanted to use this isolation to put my characters, especially Elin, under pressure. Whilst researching, I also discovered that there were sanatoriums in Switzerland (and elsewhere) for people classed as 'morally insane.' In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, many women were placed in medical care for spurious reasons by a male guardian, often diagnosed with 'Nervenkranke' (those ill in their nerves). Sometimes this was trickery, a guise to take control of an inheritance, or to suppress independent thought and ideas. Some women spent decades being 'treated.' This gave me the idea of exploring this theme within the novel and the echoes with the present day where women are still being judged for their emotions and experiences. Ayo:- How did you go about doing your research for this book? Did you actually go and visit some sanatoriums? Sarah:- After reading the initial article in Crans Montana Life magazine, I explored the town and discovered one of the sanatoriums that used to treat patients (still a clinic) which provided a lot of inspiration for the design and exterior of the building! I then found the recently published guide to Crans Montana (Une histoire culturelle de Crans-Montana (1896-2016)) by Sylvie Doriot Galofaro which provided a lot of information and photographs. I also liaised with a local photo historian who lives in Crans Montana. I then did a lot of research online, focusing not only on the history of the sanatoria but also their design. I also did some research into abandoned sanatoria using a lot of Urbex (Urban exploration) videos on Youtube. These really gave me the feel for the interior of the old sanatoria. I have a retired UK police detective who helps me with police procedure, but he obviously isn't versed in Swiss protocol, so while in Switzerland I visited the Valais Police, based in Sion. I was lucky enough to spend time with a senior sergeant there and meet the regional Commander to run through the story, its plot points and Swiss police procedure. We had some fascinating 'what if' discussions both in person and over email which helped greatly with the plotting. Ayo:- What made you decide to tell the story mainly from Elin's point of view? Sarah:- Elin was hugely important to the novel from when I started planning. I wanted Elin as a person and her emotional state and how it is dealt with by the people around her, to mirror one of the themes of the novel – how women and their emotions and experiences often aren't taken seriously or are weaponised against them. I wanted to explore the fact that people sometimes struggle with women or indeed men, openly expressing their emotions and how it's often dismissed as 'a flaw,' 'a weakness' or 'paranoia,' often disqualifying them for being taken seriously in the workplace or in their personal life. This has the knock-on effect of people feeling unable to speak up about their feelings or experiences in case it reflects poorly on them. I think there's still an overriding sense of the need to 'man up' or 'woman up,' because someone being open about their experiences can make people feel uncomfortable. People often choose to 'look the other way' rather than listen, as explored in the novel, which can have devastating consequences. I thought it was really important that Elin was a woman so she could see the world through this lens and understand why the women in the novel might be motivated to do what they do. Not only that, I wanted to show her as going through similar experiences, particularly in her role as a female detective. I've tried to make Elin a complex character with a rich emotional life who has experienced past trauma and has wrestled with the confidence in her ability to do her job. I wanted to show her working through complex emotions and anxiety, as someone may well be doing in real life and show how the characters around her react to this as she goes about her work. I was keen to show her visible struggle and gradual journey back to confidence while she's working as a strength, not the weakness that it's often perceived to be. I'm sometimes frustrated reading other novels featuring female detectives when they're given what are traditionally seen as more masculine traits and attributes in order to fit into what is 'expected' from a detective within the genre. Often this amounts to suppressed emotion portrayed through the tropes of alcoholism or addiction. I wanted to show Elin as able to openly express her feelings and still to be able to do her job despite the very real possibility of judgement by both the characters in the novel and readers alike. Ayo:- The Sanatorium is as much about frayed relationships and the tortured, broken characters as it is murder. What do you think it is about relationships that make them good fodder for crime novels? Sarah:- I think relationships are at the very core of someone's life. I think it is in the complex interactions people have with each other that you see someone's true personality emerge and this is exciting for a writer to unearth and unpick. Relationships are endlessly fascinating in so many ways, but one of the elements I find particularly interesting as a writer is exploring how much of what we tell ourselves and other people is the truth – what exactly do we keep for people and why? How much can we ever truly know another person? All of the questions we have and the sometimes very troubling answers that we discover can make great motives for crime fiction…. Ayo:- There is a teaser about the possibility of another story about Elin. Will we get to see more of her? Sarah:- Yes, in my next book, The Retreat. Elin returns with another dark and disturbing case, but this time away from the snowy isolation of Switzerland (something that I think Elin will be relieved by!) Ayo:- There are some gracious nods to a classic locked room mystery and specifically Agatha Christie. Was this your intention? Sarah:- It was! I love locked room novels. I think the innate friction and conflict that comes with placing a group of characters in an isolated, claustrophobic setting has a certain magic. The simple fact that there's no escape and no magic bullet of anyone else coming in to help, such as rescue teams or police, means your characters, in this case, a detective too, are pushed to their physical and emotional limits which is really fun as a writer to explore. In terms of Agatha Christie, she lived in Torquay and Torbay as a child, where I live now and was brought up, so she is a huge inspiration to me. I grew up hearing a lot about her as well as being immersed in her many novels. One thing about Christie's writing that I love is her intricate plotting. This for me is what a good murder mystery is built on and something I strive to do in my own work. I'm also inspired by Agatha Christie's innate understanding of people's behaviour and character which meant she was able to create compelling motive for committing crimes, which for me is key in developing a story. She also makes use of striking settings (many set in places I grew up exploring) and often makes the location a character in itself, which I aim to do in my writing. I'll never tire of her characters or the exotic settings she places them in. I also love the dichotomy within her books – the 'comforting' aspects of a cosy murder mystery juxtaposed with the deeply unsettling way she skewers class and familial / relationship dynamics, something that can often be as chilling as the murders themselves. Ayo:- Are you an Agatha Christie fan and if so, do you have a favourite Agatha Christie novel? Sarah:- Yes, I'm a huge Christie fan, both the books and the TV adaptations and I love And Then There Were None – everything from the characters, the eerie, isolated setting and the innate darkness that seeps through the narrative – a must-read! Ayo:- It also has a very gothic vibe to it. Are you fond of gothic stories and do you have any specific favourites? Sarah:- Some of my favourites include The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. I also love Michelle Paver's Thin Air, which strictly speaking, is more of a ghost story, but it definitely has elements of the gothic about it, particularly in how the mountain itself becomes such a huge character within the novel, bringing about that creeping sense of unease… Ayo:- What is the more important for you, characterisation or plot or do you try and have a happy medium between the two? Sarah:- A happy medium. I think for the genre I am writing within, having a strong plot is essential but part of that plot inherently stems from the characters and their motivations and desires as people. There has to be a good blend of both! Ayo:- How do you write? Do you prefer writing in silence, or do you have music on in the background? If you do have music on what type of music does it tend to be? Sarah:- I like to write in the mornings with a backdrop of total silence although in lockdown this was a struggle! Before I write and in between sessions (and on walks) and I have a wide variety of music that I like to listen to help inspire my work. There is a playlist on Spotify for the book which gives a flavour of the kind of music that inspired The Sanatorium. Aurora features several times as her music really helped me get in the right frame of mind for writing the book. Ayo:- Do you plot beforehand or do you just let the writing flow? Sarah:- I do like to plot beforehand, but nothing is entirely set in stone as I think it would take the fun out of the writing process! There's something really magical that happens once the characters start interacting and taking on a life of their own and often new ideas will spring from this, so I like to be fairly flexible. Once I have the rough idea for the plot down, I begin writing the first draft. I'm pretty rigid when I'm drafting – I try and write most weekdays and occasionally into the weekend if I'm on a deadline as I find it hard to get back into the plot and characters if I leave it too long between writing sessions. Ayo:- What is a typical writing day for you and how do you juggle it with family life? Sarah:- A typical writing day for me begins with taking a long walk to clear my head before I start writing. I then work pretty much solidly until I pick my daughters up for school in the afternoon. I take a short break for lunch but that is about it. My most productive time is most definitely the mornings. In terms of juggling it with our family life, it works quite well when my daughters are at school as I can get a full day of writing in. When I'm on a deadline, the weekends sometimes get taken up with work too (this happened a lot during lockdown as my working day was compressed) but I am aiming to maintain a better balance this year. Ayo:- How did the lockdown affect your writing? Sarah:- I found it quite challenging in terms of my writing as I previously had a fairly fixed routine of writing while my daughters were at school which very quickly got disturbed, but I found a new routine and learnt to be a little more adaptable and patient, which is no bad thing for an author! Ayo:- How would you like your characters to be remembered? Sarah:- Complex and unpredictable but also fun and exciting people to spend a few hours with! Ayo:- What are you working on at the moment and can you tell us about it? Sarah:- I'm in the closing stages of writing my next novel, which sees Elin return to her job as detective in another dark and dramatic setting with a complex case that pushes her to the edge in both her personal and professional life.  The Santorium by Sarah Pearse (Published by Transworld Publishers) Out Now. Everyone's in danger. Anyone could be next. An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac. And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancee Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're all in . . .  |
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